


Silence

by leogrl19



Category: Half-Life
Genre: F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, No Plot/Plotless, One Shot, Ten Years Later, Why Valve? WHY?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 11:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1427086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leogrl19/pseuds/leogrl19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just an obligatory, 'I'm still addicted, oh yes I am' one-shot after binging on the entire Half-Life 2 series. Alyx/Gordon fans, rejoice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silence

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when nostalgia makes me play the Half-Life 2 series in one go after…Ten years? Yeeesh. Anyway, momentarily addicted to Alyx/Gordon. Had to write something. 
> 
> This is Episode Two-ish, at least after the car bit. Try not to get too hung up on the details, people. Just Alyx being amaze balls, Gordon being Mcdorkable, and the two of them being one of the cutest damn couples that's never even kissed.

* * *

 

"Been a while…"  
  
Gordon glanced up, in a daze, the physicist momentarily seized from the murky nebula of his own inner musings.  
  
"It's been a while." Alyx restated — though not without a new quirk to her lips; he had no doubt she found catching 'The Opener of the Way' unaware, amusing. "Since we've had this." She gestured around their dilapidated setting. "Quiet."  
  
He slowly nodded, hand tapping reflexively against the sure metal of his crowbar, as if the words, themselves — hopeful and undaunted — would summon immediate doom.  
  
His companion smirked, catching the action. "Geez, Gordon — paranoid much?"  
  
The man sniffed indignantly: it wasn't as if it were unjustified. They had just managed putting down four hunters, one seemingly leaping from the brush as soon as its brethren was effectively quelled—  
  
Several of the same creatures that almost killed _her_.   
  
A memory too fresh. He _was_ paranoid. Anxious.

 _Overprotective_.   
  
The curve to Alyx's lips dimmed, a wrinkle marring her brow. "That wasn't your fault." He frowned, never any less impressed that the woman could decipher his feelings when he gave so very little. "And, I'm better now, thanks to the Vorts and," her eyes flicked away, shyly grazing her boot, "you." Amber orbs bravely met his. "Besides, you've seen me in action. Still kicking butt and taking names —" the smirk returned, "some of us have reputations to maintain. No thanks to you."  
  
He felt the small, rebellious turn of his mouth — a smile he knew the other caught given her pleased expression.  
  
Gordon sighed, raising his hands in a placating manner.   
  
Alyx lifted her chin superiorly. "Damn right, I won…"  
  
The physicist rolled his eyes and she chuckled, resuming the repetitive, winding motion of redressing the tensor bandage around her wrist:  
  
Alyx made jokes. He employed silence. They all had their coping mechanisms.   
  
And he knew her well enough to know when she didn't want to talk.  
  
Gordon closed his eyes, leaning his head against the uneven stone of the wall, his HEV suit steadily pumping morphine into his system, given the 'no worse than usual' damage he sustained. A few minor scratches littered his face, (Alyx had shooed his hand away when he tried to blindly clean them himself, asserting she'd do the honors, 'in a sec') evidence of the stray flechettes he managed to avoid.   
  
"…Gordon." His eyes snapped opened; Alyx instantly looked apologetic, mouth shutting…before parting again. "Does it…make you nervous?" A confused stare. "Silence." She paused, as if to prove her point. "It's…unsettling. When it's just quiet like this…" another pause, "Deafening." The woman laughed to herself, self-conscious fingers quickly moving to scoop a few, unruly strands behind her ear. "Okay: that sounded _way_ better in my head…."  
  
Gordon shook his head with an immediacy and vigor that surprised him. "I understand."  
  
Alyx stared at him for a few, long moments…before smiling, and he felt his own brand of self-consciousness, suddenly — _painfully_ — self-aware.  
  
He fumbled for one of the edges of his black rimmed glasses, adjusting them with more effort than was actually needed. "…It does." A slender brow rose; he swallowed roughly. "Make me nervous."  
  
The woman eyed him again, a silent mix of…shock? And appreciation — before awarding him another, warm smile. "As long as I can remember, silence only meant bad things. Possibly being captured, or a critical system malfunction, or…" her gaze fell, "Death."  
  
Gordon frowned, knowing the concept well.  
  
 _Too_ well.   
  
Alyx tucked frayed edges inside the secured wrap. "So, I guess that's why I was sorta surprised." He gave another puzzled glance — _surprised_? She nodded, almost patiently. "Silence only meant bad things, but…" brave amber orbs found him again, a nervous sort of quirk tugging her lips, now, "I'm okay with this. The quiet…The stillness. When it's with you."  
  
The physicist stared — it taking several, rapid moments to confirm she actually said what he _thought_ she said — before he felt heat _swarm_ his ears, his cheeks—   
  
His chest.  
  
So much so, that he half expected his suit's computer to warn him of unstable life conditions, at any moment, the unaffected, feminine tone droning 'user death imminent', from his embarrassment, alone.  
  
And, this hadn't even been the **_first_** time — the woman, with a regularity that almost, always, sent him into a state of cardiac distress, just… _said_ these things. And he—  
  
 _Floundered_.   
  
Alyx merely offered a diffident smile. "I should get to those scratches…" she turned to pop open a medkit.   
  
Gordon adjusted his glasses, again, pushing them up by the bridge of his nose this time and managing a barely passable jerk of the head, as a nod.  
  
If the woman noticed anything astonishingly awkward about the matter, she kept it to herself — besides the barely perceptible…grin? Smirk? That he could never properly identify (she kept turning away) as she pulled out a small vial of antiseptic and a couple cotton pads, before transitioning to a more mobile position on her knees and making the short trip in front of him.  
  
He held his breath — which his scientific mind informed completely unnecessary — as Alyx leaned in, noticing every slight shift of her jacket, every flicker of breath within her chest….  
  
A gentle, calloused finger, slipping past the pad, grazed his skin.   
  
Gordon flinched.  
  
" _Wow_ …" he heard the smirk he couldn't see, "So, almost being blown up by zombines and practically getting trampled by hunters doesn't faze you, but a bit of antiseptic makes you cringe?"  
  
"…It stings." A grumbled half-lie; his brows dipped petulantly.  
  
Alyx only laughed, gingerly cleaning his other wounds despite her teasing.  
  
He felt his gloved hands clench.  
  
 _Frustration_.  
  
He had never been…proficient with women. Had never _understood_ them. Not like nuclear interactions or electromagnetism.   
  
But Alyx wasn't 'women'. Alyx was…  
  
 _Alyx_.  
  
And, _damn it all_ — she almost _died_.  
  
She…. _Almost_ …  
  
Gordon swallowed. Exhaled. Swallowed again. "…Me too."  
  
The other's hand paused — and he could have sworn the pad fell a few centimeters. "What?"  
  
Another breath. "I'm…okay. With the silence." She chose that moment to back away, and the _brilliance_ of her eyes both stunned and pushed him forward. "If it's with you."  
  
And, those brave — _brilliant_ — shocked — amber orbs shivered, Alyx biting her lower lip, before brushing a hand against his glasses — stealing them away — plunging him into blurred uncertainty as her voice surged and trembled. "Good." A shaken breath. "Because…I think I could get used to it." Hands wrapped around his neck; a damp cheek met his. "Our silence."  
  
Gordon nodded — for once, not _thinking_ — gathering her close. "Yeah…" Holding on. "Me too."


End file.
